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Giant is awake and determined to build for future

Craig Foster

IN HIS first week in office, David Gallop made a point of promoting very positive messages about the game, choosing to refer to a term that has often been used against the game: ''sleeping giant''.

Gallop commented on realising the landscape had changed the moment John Aloisi's penalty hit the net in November 2005 to put Australia into the World Cup. At the time he was the boss of the National Rugby League.

He had cause to extend the metaphor days later, following a new broadcast deal, to say the giant was awake, out on the street and with cash in his pocket.

It was effective because the imagery used to keep the game down for so long has now been turned around and used to the game's benefit. Confidence and positivity are self-perpetuating, and it's a powerful image for every soccer fan to believe, and promote. Two events, in particular, highlight the growing power of the game. Soccer is back on free-to-air television. Sanity has, finally, prevailed and the timing could not have been better, with every indicator sky high, including A-League crowds, pay television ratings and club memberships.

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Now is the perfect time to open the game up to the remainder of the Australian community, around 70 per cent of households without pay TV, to broaden the game's reach and promotion. If you'll permit a brief plug for SBS, with 30 years' experience and devotion to the game, as well as a suite of multilingual broadcast and digital platforms to take the game into our diverse communities, the collaboration between Fox Sports, SBS and Football Federation Australia to broadcast a live match every Friday night will provide a phenomenal boost to the visibility of the competition.

The funds will allow FFA to match the salary cap of the clubs, a significant milestone in the development of the competition commercially. But although the club dividend will increase, it appears the players are to receive no further benefit, with the salary cap to be frozen despite producing week-by-week the best football the competition has seen in its short history.

The game would do well to avoid industrial action or disputes leading into next season, and this is an issue Gallop will need to resolve with new Professional Footballers Australia boss Nick Holland to give certainty to the players as soon as possible.

Gallop has made all the right noises in this regard, using different language to his predecessors on the importance of rewarding our elite players. With growing competition from Asian leagues, it is fundamental to continue to provide greater financial benefits to retain talent, let alone attract new talent.

Next year is a watershed one for the competition, as it grows and heads into the wider community.

Following closely has been the second football diplomacy conference at the Lowy Institute to explore maximising the cultural, commercial, social, community, diplomatic and tourism aspects of hosting the 2015 Asian Cup, a tournament that dovetails perfectly with the recent release of the government white paper, Australia in the Asian Century. The first conference was held in 2005 to precede Australia's entry into the Asian Football Confederation. The second demonstrated clearly how far the game has come, with a range of government, business and community leaders sharing a common message - that soccer is now the bridge to Australia achieving greater integration, engagement and membership of Asia.

But the Asian Cup is much more. It is not only an obvious opportunity for Australia to promote itself to an expected audience of more than 2 billion, but a chance to better understand the rich patchwork of our own nation.

Business leaders talked glowingly of the commercial opportunities the game offers both here and abroad, and we all know the power of soccer to bring people together and help those at the margins of society.